


The Uncensored Monologue of Jack Rackham

by tyomawrites



Series: Monologues [3]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Multi, This is Getting Out of Hand, hi i love jack a little too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 02:34:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17716418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyomawrites/pseuds/tyomawrites





	The Uncensored Monologue of Jack Rackham

If there’s one thing Jack knows for sure in his life is that without Charles Vane, he would have been nothing —is nothing—will never be something. Will never be more than the scrawny little quartermaster that somehow managed to scrambled for a place on the fearless and feared—revered and worshiped—Charles Vane’s crew. He’ll have never given Anne a proper chance at a life, never would have seen the seas, fallen in love with the waters, never learned to have his wits about him and a sharp enough tongue. He knows just as much that’s what fuels him. The life that was given to him by Charles. And now Hornigold was trying to have Charles hung, all for pieces of silver.

It’s what makes him order the doors to the fort open and he’s blowing a hole in the man's head. When the vote is counted and Featherstone comes to him, pauses, asks him to hand Charles over.

It truly is over. 

He will never, let them take Charles.

“Then we go and fashion a new exit.” 

He’s determined, but his priority is for Charles to get out, to be safe.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Where he’s been is setting up and rigging the wall to blow so that he can get Charles out of the damn fort.

“Just putting some things in order.”

“You said you'd put him out, Jack.” Yeah he will, after he tries and does his best to reassure that Charles can get out of here safe and he can die trying to do so.

“Quite right. Quick goodbye. Last cigar. Surely you don't mind.” He trails off when he turns towards Charles, Anne and Featherstone.

”Did you do it?”

“Yeah. Fuse is lit. In a few minutes, that wall is going to be a lot shorter.” He knows he looks nervous, and he is as much.

“Finding it hard to believe there is near enough material in that magazine to cause the sort of damage you seem to think it will.” Oh Charles. Doubt. That horrible, guilt wracking doubt.

“Believe it. I have lost years of my life these last months trying to rebuild this place. I'll be goddamned if the new governor is going to inherit the fruits of all that labor. Not whole, at any rate.” God be damned if that new governor undoes all the work he has done, if he ruins the beauty that should be Nassau. “Now, when it happens, we should have a clear path over the rubble. We'll cover your escape to the jetty. It's not going to be easy. The whole island is seeking that bounty.” 

“My escape? You plan to stay?” There’s a tone, underneath the confusion in Charles’s voice, it sounds like hurt, is very, reminiscent of hurt—it could very well be hurt for all he knows but—he can’t leave Charles not really.

“Teach respects you. You'll sail with him without looking over your shoulder the whole time wondering whether he's gonna back someone else to take your place. But me, I have no interest in living as a target of his.” God he still hates Teach. Hates everything about it. He wants to be with Charles for the rest of his life. Have Charles as his Captain again if that’s what it takes, he’ll be the loyal quartermaster and Anne can be by his side, maybe look after Max on the ship?

“Jack, you know there's no way I'd ever let that happen.” But Charles can’t protect him forever, and he doesn’t want that either, to be protected forever.

“Nor would I be a ward of yours.” He’s no longer just, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane’s scrawny little quartermaster who hides behind a woman’s sword, as if he actually needed to hide behind Anne, he just preferred to fight things out with words because it was a guaranteed fight he would win. “I've made something for myself here. I'll make it again somehow, but I've come too far to go back.” 

“You'll take the pardon, I presume.” Why would he ever? To take the pardon would be giving up the life that Charles gave him, and by association, everything he has ever dreamed of.

“Who knows? I haven't got that far yet. But wherever we land, Anne and I will be taken care of.” He will always make sure that Anne is taken care of.

“Taken care of? How? You set aside some of the gold?” Honestly—in all true honesty—he’d expected to secret Anne and Max away and stay behind to ensure they would both have a happy life together.

“She did. How much? Mmm.”

“Quit fucking around. Put him out.” They’re interrupted by the crew and the smile he has slips off his face.

“Right, just a moment.” He holds his hand out to calm the man, his brow furrows when he turns and he turns back to Charles. “Fucking never liked you.” He mutters under his breath, but Charles hears him.

“What?” 

“I was just gonna say, I’ll see you soon, but that would probably be a lie, wouldn't it? Probably. Godspeed, Charles.” It might as well be a lie, if Teach takes Charles and sails away and never comes back. Will he take the pardon? Unlikely. Will he be hung? Likely. It would entirely be a lie if he ever said it again.

“Fuck you Jack.” It sounds more like an ‘I love you’ when Charles says it. They hug, barely a moment before Charles is pulling away from him. He has nothing else to say now. Anne looks at him like their exchange is anything but obvious, and then he has to hold back a sob as he watches Charles’s retreating back.

The thing about Jack is that he’s a stubborn bastard when he wants to be. He should have gone with Charles, but he doesn't want to fall into his shadow again. He loves him, but he doesn't want to need him.

Charles leaves and Jack is, Jack is Jack. Jack is alone. He and Anne will that the cache and leave, will take the cache of gems and run away and they will never come back to Nassau now not under the Governor’s rule but as long as Charles is not there, gone far far away from Nassau and away from this danger then he thinks he can be happy with Anne even if she cannot be his wife, and he does not want to be her husband.

He and Anne walk. They walk and walk and Jack is thankful for his hat which blocks out the sun beating down above them. He walks and he thinks about the future, their freedom. He ponders, wonder if Charles and Flint —if Flint is even alive—will return to Nassau to take it back from the Governor’s hold.

He’ll be long gone—coward, loser, traitor—whispers in the back of his mind and it’s Charles’s voice because he didn’t follow him to leave with Teach but he couldn’t. And then he’s promising Anne that he’s just going to go get his name pardoned and he’ll be back in a few hours.

He’s not back in a few hours, the Governor arrests him and asks him his opinion of his book and is—for lack of better words—polite to him. Then he hears that they’ve lied to Anne to exchange his life for the cache of gems and he’s hurt, not like he was hurt when Charles fucking Vane left him, but it’s hurt because he knows the ache in his heart is the exact same one that Anne probably has at the idea of betraying him.

He hopes, hopes and even prays, that Anne can leave him behind.

That is, until he’s shackled and being told by the Governor is smiling at him and informing him that the Spanish want their gold, and  _ him, because they’ve taken offence at his existence. _

And for the first time it’s not the lack of faith in him that scares him.

He’s undoubtedly filled with fear.


End file.
